Keep your heart

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Mark McMillion

King Solomon wrote, “Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) A more modern English version says “guard your heart”, rather than “keep”.

So I’m thinking, “What if someone told me that Bible verse back when I was 18 years old?” I was an atheist so I would have laughed and smirked. But even if I had listened, I think the problem was mostly just with the word “heart”. Because honestly, I really didn’t know what a heart was.

I probably would have made some sarcastic quip and asked what a “heart” is. I was that bad off. I knew I had a physical heart that pumped blood. But this other idea was pretty nebulous to me. And even if I believed in such a thing, I sure didn’t understand it very much.

And why should I? I got virtually all my information from school, television, newspapers and modern books. Are any of those going to tell me I have a heart? No way. What was really important was my mind. I needed to really work on my mind because that’s where it really was all happening. If I had a great mind, that was all that mattered. If I ever heard about the heart at all, it was through music. Those folks talked about that so I got some ideas through that.

But all the while, sure ‘nuf, I did have a heart. And a spirit and soul as well. And they were not doing very good. At all. I filled my heart with images of sports cars, beautiful women and cool clothes. I had a picture of a really cool foreign sports car on my wall from the time I was about 14. Functionally it was an idol I virtually worshiped. It was my goal in life and I finally got it when I was 20. Like it says in Psalms 106:15 “He gave them the desires of their heart, but sent leanness to their soul.” I got what I wanted, but it was utterly unfulfilling. My heart was full of the wrong things and I didn’t even have the most important thing in my heart, Jesus Christ.

In my case, the sins, foolishness and ignorance of my heart brought me face to face with Death and Satan. It took that and more to bring me to realize that there’s a spiritual world that I’d mocked and denied for so long. But from that experience of hell and its eternal terrors, I came to a knowledge of the God of Abraham and a few months later, of His Son Jesus.

I shockingly found out that I had a soul, a heart and a spirit. These were infinitely more important than my mind and its education. Maybe I couldn’t have learned this any other way. I wouldn’t really listen to anybody so I had to learn the hard way. But I did learn. I knew from experience, not church, that it all comes down to my heart. God had brought me to something I never dreamed or even wanted to happen to me. I’d had a “born again” (John 3:3) experience. I’d gone through a death of my old life and now I was a “new creature” (II Corinthians 5:17), truly and fully.

But what was I going to do with it? In Psalm 16:11 King David prayed to the Lord and said “You will show me the path of life”. Would I follow the path of life that He would show me? He wasn’t going to force me. It was my choice. It was up to me. It was my choice that mattered.

Jesus talked about a farmer who went to plant seeds by casting them in his field. Jesus said that some of the seeds fell on stony ground, some on ground with weeds and thorns and some fell on good ground. It was all about our hearts, our relationship to God and His Word. Jesus said that the seed that fell on good ground represented those who, “in an honest and good heart, having heard God’s Word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience.” (Luke 8:15) An honest and good heart. Not a hardened heart full of stones. Not a worldly heart full of the weeds, cares and values of this evil world. A good heart, a heart that has been kept, guarded and preserved for the goodness of God that can spring up there.

There was a song by a famous American singer, Johnny Cash. It was a song I suppose for his girl friend or wife. But it really had some good words to it. He sang, “I keep a close watch on this heart of mine. I keep my eyes wide open all the time. Because you’re mine, I walk the line.” That could just as easily be a song we could sing or say to the Lord. That’s what it takes. To choose “the path of life”, you have to “keep your heart with all diligence”.

Is there not a cause?

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Mark McMillion

david and brothers flat 2 One of the most touching and stirring verses in the Bible to me is what David said when he was probably just a young teenager, “Is there not a cause?” (I Samuel 17:29) I’ve never read anything written about that verse by anyone so I’ll tell you about it.

You don’t have to believe in God to have heard about David and Goliath. David, a young teenage shepherd boy, killed the leading fighter of the enemies of David’s people. The 9 foot tall giant, Goliath, had a spear and armor; David just had some rocks and a simple sling. And in the power and will of God, David slew Goliath. But David had to fight a tremendous spiritual battle with his own family before he ever faced Goliath.

King-Saul Goliath’s people, the Philistines, had been overlords and oppressors of the Jewish people for generations. But changes were in the air. God had raised up a very devout and faithful high priest, Samuel. And God had led Samuel to anoint a king for the first time in Israel, Saul.

The Philistines and the Israelites were again about to clash. But when it came time for battle, the Israeli fighters were in fear and awe of the champion warrior of the Philistines, Goliath. In modern times the tallest any person has been known to be is around 8½ feet tall. But the Bible says that in those times 3000 years ago there were giants and they were taller than any people are today.

David, who later became Israel’s most famous and Godly king, was the youngest of 8 brothers. His father had him tending flocks of sheep on the countryside outside his hometown of Bethlehem while his three oldest brothers were away as combatants in Saul’s army which was facing Goliath and the Philistine army.

David’s father told his son to go to the army camp of Saul to take food to his brothers and to see how things were going. So David left the sheep in the care of a servant and journeyed to Saul’s camp. While David was there, he heard the bellowing taunts of Goliath from across the battle lines, challenging any of the soldiers of Saul to meet him in single combat.

And this is where things get almost weird. Remember, David at that time was probably around the age of a modern day 7^th grader or 8^th grader. When David found that no fighter of Saul was ready to meet Goliath in battle, he told the ones there that he would face Goliath in combat. At length, King Saul gave David permission to go out to face Goliath.

But before David faced Goliath, he had to overcome an unexpected confrontation with his own brother. You’d think his brothers would rejoice to hear of David’s incredible faith and conviction. But sadly, as the human condition so often is, he was harassed vehemently. In I Samuel 17:28, when David’s oldest brother heard of his little brother’s faith and conviction, he had this to say to him:

“Why have you come here? Who did you leave the sheep with? I know your pride and the naughtiness of your heart! You’ve just come here to see the battle.”

So did David collapse under his big brother’s withering accusations and condemnations? Did he loose heart and head back home in defeat and confusion? No. Before he faced the physical battle with Goliath the giant, he had to first withstand the spiritual attacks from his own flesh and blood family and “the accuser of the saints” (Revelation 12:10), Satan speaking through his own brother. And David answered his brother,

“Is there not a cause?” ( I Samuel 17:29)

What vision, what conviction, what determination. “Is there not a cause?” Is there not an utterly valid reason? Isn’t this worth fighting for? So David had to stand alone, not only on the battlefield with Goliath but before that, with his own family and people. He had nothing but the hand of God on him and virtually crazy faith that gave him the courage to do the humanly impossible.

Have you ever had to make that kind of stand of faith? Have you had a vision or cause that burned in you so strongly that you not only were ready to risk your life for it, you were willing to suffer the mocking slanders of those you were closest to? It’s that kind of vision in a higher cause, a purpose and noble endeavor that’s captured men’s hearts and souls to go beyond the normal and mundane, to right wrongs, to champion the defeated, “to march into hell for a heavenly cause”.

david-and-goliath Sometimes “A man’s foes shall be they of his own household” (Matthew 10:36). Jesus said so. In David’s case, he stood up to his brother and then went out to win the most unlikely victory in the history of all battles. Because of David’s faith and certainty in the faithfulness of God to help him win a just battle against all odds, he not only slew Goliath, he went on to be Israel’s greatest king. And his words in the Psalms in the Bible have given hope and courage to countless millions for 30 centuries.

Do you have a cause? Do you have a burning vision in your heart? A glorious quest? A calling from God that you know is just and worth living your life for? If so, don’t let anyone dissuade you, even those you’re closest to. “Is there not a cause?”

A Powerpoint of “So You Have To Go Home”

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Mark McMillion

Recently I posted an article called “So You Have To Go Home”. This was about the experiences of Ruth and Naomi in the Old Testament and how some of us in these times can find significance in how things worked out for them when they had to “go home.”

Some dear missionary friends of mine in Ukraine took this story and turned it into a Powerpoint presentation to use with folks they minster to and have classes with. I thought to add it in here as they’ve found ways to illustrate it all very well and it could be a blessing to some of you.

Here it is: So You Have to Go Home

Cannot come down

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Mark McMillion

Nehemiah said to his sly enemies from the walls of Jerusalem. “I am doing a great work and cannot come down. Why should I come down to you and the work cease?” (Nehemiah 6:3) It probably sounded unreasonable, extreme, perhaps unsociable. But Nehemiah was not only filled with a vision and conviction about what he was called to do. He also knew how to recognize distractions and subtle attempts to get him away from God’s highest and best.

In approximately 440 BC, Jerusalem was in ruins, a virtual ghost town compared to the glory that it had been in the hundreds of years before its destruction. Nehemiah had received permission from the Persian king to go back to Jerusalem as the governor there with the specific vision to restore and build the walls of the city.

But then the local enemies of the Jews wanted Nehemiah to “Come down into the plain of Ono and talk to us.” (Nehemiah 6:2) Their cunning line of reasoning was, “Let’s talk this over, Nehemiah. Now be reasonable; we’re your friends and you need to listen to us.” Don’t get me wrong, there can certainly be a time to listen to people and discuss things. But in this case, Nehemiah knew that these enemies at the gate were utterly and totally “Wolves in sheep’s clothing.” (Matthew 7:15).

So Nehemiah boldly told them, “I’m doing a great work and cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I come down and talk to you?” (Nehemiah 6:3) Nehemiah was not tricked and duped by the deceit of the Devil. He wasn’t sidetracked and tripped off into a trap, lured by the lies of the Lucifer.

Where there is faith, reverence and obedience to God, the Devil is always going about in one form or the other to try to destroy God’s plan and His people. This is a constant throughout history and it’s shown in this amazing way in the book of Nehemiah. We often think of Satan “Going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” ( I Peter 5:8). But, believe it or not, more often the Devil will go about as a sly, slithering serpent, like his temptations at the beginning in Eden.

In the book of Nehemiah, the enemies of God never openly, physically attacked the fragile remnant of the Jews who were attempting to fortify their city. Instead, it was all with words; doubts, fears, questions, accusations, whatever might be thrown against their faith was tried by the local enemies of Israel in an attempt to defeat the faith and reborn convictions of the Jews.

Often this is the Devil’s first line of attack. If he can dissuade you from believing and obeying God through his words which sow fear, confusion, doubt or whatever it takes to turn you away from your faith and obedience, then he doesn’t need to try any kind of physical attack on you. Like with Eve in the garden, the devil can just lie to you. And if you believe the lie, rather than God’s Word, Satan has won.

While the book of Nehemiah is a history book and not considered especially spiritual in content, there are key verses which show that the returned Jews were a chastened, humbled, believing people, focused on living repentant lives in obedience to the God of Abraham. Even a little verse like Nehemiah 4:6 “For the people had a mind to work” is a short glimpse into the regenerated soul of the inhabitants of Jerusalem as they banded together in thankfulness that God had allowed them, as He had promised He would, to return to their homeland and rebuild their capital.

And those words, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down” are ones that we too can claim, remember and even quote back to the Devil if need be when we are being besieged by temptations, allurements, doubts, fears or confusion that the Enemy of God throws at us daily to try to get us to cast away our confidence, surrender our joy and lose our crown to the words of Satan and the wisdom that is not of God. Don’t come down from the wall of God’s will and high calling into the “plain of Ono”! God help us all to stay strong on the wall of God’s will.

Spiritual Habits: Humility

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Mark McMillion

Humility is a funny thing. When you think you have it, you probably don’t. But it’s easy to not think of humility as a good thing. Certainly in the secular world, humility is normally equated with weakness and even with being a loser. But this is one of the clearest places where the Lord’s ways are not our ways and certainly not the ways of the world. Jesus said of Himself that He was “meek and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29).

Today someone shared some needed correction with me. They did it very politely, they were totally right and I needed to hear what they said as I was in the wrong. Still, it was hard to take. It’s kind of destabilizing. Your inner self is offended and wants to answer back, defending and justifying yourself. And of course that’s what is the usual reaction for most people all over the world. Your pride is hurt, your self-esteem has been wounded and you just want to fight back.

I was getting feelings like that but then I remembered a Bible verse I memorized years ago, something Solomon said in Proverbs 9:8, “Rebuke a wise man and he will love you.” Only pride hurts, humility doesn’t really feel it. And if you are any student of Scriptures or of the great people of God in history, you’ll certainly know that they were all not only people of faith, but people of humility.

An obscure, fascinating verse, Isaiah 57:15 says, “So says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and lofty place, with him that is of a humble and contrite heart, to revive the spirit of the humble, and revive the heart of the contrite ones.” The great God on high dwells with the humble, not the proud. Peter in the Bible said, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (I Peter 5:5)

But how do you get humility? Do you work really hard for it? Someone said one time, “That takes humility of the kind only God can give you, because your own self is always trying to justify itself, exalt itself and protect itself.” Like Job said, “If I justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me.” (Job 9:20) Sadly that’s so true. But the good news there is that God can give you the humility you need and that He wants you to have. We are to “humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” (I Peter 5:6) We should cultivate humility in our heart, just like a precious little plant, while we try to recognize and root out the sins of pride and arrogance.

Today it was a humbling experience for me to have my faults and errors pointed out, even if it was done nicely. It was almost like when I’ve had to go to the dentist. I don’t like it but I have to just tell myself rather strongly, “This is for your good. You need this; this is doing something good for you, even if it hurts a little right now.”

But I did have an encouraging thought at the time it was happening, “At least I can recognize this as something good and for my good. I can try to get a grip on this pride that is trying to rear its head right now and make me offended and discouraged by being exposed like this.” I basically ended up putting off what I’d planned to do today and just got quiet before the Lord to try to let Him work in my soul and to take to heart what had rather surprisingly been shared with me.

Honestly, it’s taken a lifetime of similar situations and experiences from time to time (many of them not as easily acceptable as what happened today) to get me to where I can try to let the Lord do the work in my heart of teaching me some things about myself that are a bit unpleasant or discouraging. Some people think the solution is to continue to keep their head, “bloody but unbowed”, as it says in an old poem. But that’s really not what the Lord wants. He wants to teach us and help us grow in our hearts and spirits. Jesus said, “Every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” (John 15:2) Purgings, humiliations, corrections from Godly brethren, even exposures are not easy to take. But if you are to be clay in the master’s hand, if you are to be purified gold, then embracing the humility that God wants us to grow in is utterly essential.

If you are a little uncertain about humility and honestly don’t even know if you like the whole idea, I suggest you make a Bible study on the subject. Humility is one of the most essential essences we need to have if we want to stay alive in the Lord and grow in His presence. Jesus said, “Whoever humbles himself as a little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:4)

Spiritual habits (Part 4) Memorizing God’s Word

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Mark McMillion

I’d been a Christian for about a year when I was at a meeting of young people on a Saturday night. A friend of mine called me up in front of these 100 people, put his hand on my shoulder and looking out at everyone, said, “I just want you to see the results of memorizing Scripture.” And I guess he was right.

One of the habits I developed at the beginning of my Christian life was memorizing God’s Word. What happened was this. I’d been a Christian for around 3 days when a brother who was instrumental in my becoming a Christian said something to me that changed my life. He told me, “You know, if you’ll just memorize 3 verses every day, God will really bless you.” Somehow that really stood out to me and I said in my heart right then, “I’m going to do that.” Basically I did that for a long time and it’s probably been the most significant spiritual habit that I’ve had as a Christian.

Now I know this is probably not what you are hearing from the pulpit in your church on Sunday morning. But if you look at the people of the New Testament, you can certainly see that they memorized Scripture. It is written flat In the famous story of when Jesus was tempted by the Devil in the wilderness, when the Devil came and spoke to Jesus, the Lord didn’t begin flaying his arms wildly and start screaming at the Devil. No, He just quoted Scriptures at him, Three times the Lord began His sentence with “It is written…” and went on to quote Scripture in answer to the Devil’s temptations. (Luke 4:1-13) The Lord knew the Scriptures of His day and could quote them verbatim when He needed to. And He often did.

Then when Jesus had gone to Heaven and the early church was beginning, the Apostles certainly knew their Scriptures by heart. On the day of Pentecost, when Peter needed to explain things to the huge crowd that gathered, he didn’t start spewing out his own ideas. He told them, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel” and he went on to quote from that Old Testament prophet, as well as other places in the Hebrew scriptures, to explain to the crowd from the Word what was happening. (Acts 2:14-36)

Even all the way back in Job, what is considered to be the oldest book in the Bible, Job said to “lay up His words in your heart.” (Job 22:22) King David said, “The law of his God is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide” (Psalms 37:31). Actually there’s a lot in the writings of David about this, like Psalm 119:11 where David prayed, “Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”

But maybe this may all make you just groan and you think, “Oh, no! I can’t memorize anything!” Let me make this a little personal because it is. Before I came to the Lord, I didn’t have any special ability to memorize things. But with the Word of God, it was like certain verses were just so clear and simple, they stood out to me so much that it was almost like the Lord just placed them in my mind and there wasn’t really a lot of effort on my part. In other words, the truths in the Words of the Lord were so strong and important that memorizing it wasn’t a lot of hard work. It was like grabbing something that was really good for me or tasted good or was worth a lot.

we should memorze flat You may have already found that some Bible verses are almost already there in your memory. Or when you read them, they just jump out as strikingly significant. It’s those ones that mean so much to you, or that you know are timeless pillars within the Word of God, those are the ones you could make an effort to commit to memory.

For me, as soon as I found or recognized that a verse was of special significance, I’d make an effort to immediately write the reference somewhere. After a while, I built up a lot of verses like that and I ended up writing them on 3X5 cards, according to the books in the Bible they were from. I did that for around 3 years and it got to be a lot of verses. Believe it or not, I still have those cards with those verses and they’re still a part of my daily devotions.

In many ways I think of the verses I’ve memorized as my best friends. These are verses I’ve quoted to the Lord in times of desperate need, verses that have been boundaries for me to keep me from going astray, they’ve been wisdom for me in my dealings with others, they’ve been the comfort of God’s love speaking to my heart in some of my darkest hours.

Memorizing Scripture can be work and it can seem like something you can’t do. But the Word I’ve hidden in my heart through memorizing Scriptures has probably been more of a marking of my character than any other single thing in my Christian walk. Yes, it does take effort. But the people of the Bible did this and the returns on your investment of effort are immeasurable.

Spiritual habits (Part 1) The heavenly vision

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Mark McMillion

I’d just finished my time of personal devotions this morning when I got one of those nudges from the Lord that I should write a blog post on spiritual habits. What a huge subject. Here in America so many people are very aware of maintaining healthy physical habits. But I wonder how many are equally diligent with their spiritual habits?

And it’s incredibly important. Here in the US there’s a term, “morbidly obese”. In my travels abroad I almost never saw anyone like this, but here it’s not unusual to see people who weigh between 300 and 600 pounds (136 to 272 kilos). Not to be critical or judgmental, but their physical habits are killing them. You can’t see as easily the results of spiritual habits but they do affect you, for good or for evil.

When I was 23, recently “delivered from the power of darkness.”

It was my bad spiritual habits that very nearly killed me when I was in university. How I was “delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the Kingdom of His dear son” (Colossians 1:13) is a story in itself that I can share another time. But, early on in my spiritual walk, the Lord helped me establish spiritual habits that have stuck with me and have been a major factor in my staying alive for Him for the last 43 years in countries all over the world as I’ve lived to bring His love to the people of many nations.

There are so many aspects to having healthy spiritual habits. But I wanted to put one first that’s not so often even mentioned or realized. That’s what could be called “the heavenly vision”. And it’s not just the devil that fights this because, like Paul said in the Bible, we have two natures, “the old man” and “the new man” (Ephesians 4:22-24). Perhaps more often it’s your own carnal fleshly nature constantly battling to get you distracted, discouraged, disillusioned, disenchanted and just plane dissed.

Condemnation-flattened If you are a believer, if you are a Christian and trying to hold on to your crown and your faith, the devil will fight you. But this is where the Spirit of God will help us to overcome that and the way He does it is through the majesty of choice. You can choose to fight and resist those negative fleshly impulses and that nature. And one of the easiest and strongest ways He can help us do that is simply through our mind’s eye.

There are many verses in the Bible where God’s greats told of the importance of this. David said, “I have set the Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” (Psalm 16:8) King David had, in his mind’s eye, in his vision, the Lord ever before Him. In Hebrews, in that stirring 12^th chapter, it tells us to “run with patience the race before us”. And then it goes on the in the next verse to tell us how to do that: “Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith”. (Hebrews 12:2)

Looking unto Jesus. Setting Him before our face. It’s that heavenly vision, that setting our mind on the things above, above the daily distractions and death of this world, keeping the heavenly vision. Paul said, “I have not been disobedient to the heavenly vision.” (Acts 26:19) He’d kept the faith by keeping the vision. Solomon said, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18)

miley And here’s one more that has always spoken to me, again from King David. “I will set no wicked thing before my eyes, I hate the work of them that turn aside, it shall not cleave to me.” (Psalms 101:3). That is a significant verse from God’s Word. If your mind’s eye is filled with doubts, discouragement, worldly distractions, earthly values and prejudices, those things are “wicked things before your eyes”. Some of the filth and foolishness that’s so visible nowadays is like some loathsome, viral disease for which there’s almost no antidote, except for God. And if you don’t watch out, it will “cleave to you”, like some kind of dirty chewing gum that you can’t get off.

The solution is to keep the heavenly vision. Fill your mind and heart with positive, encouraging, faith building thoughts from God’s Word, or the refreshing uplift you get from being in God’s nature, or the strengthen you receive from deep Christian fellowship with others, or the renewing that comes from sharing His love and truth with those in need.

the vision flat So one of the simplest but most important habits you can have to keep yourself alive spiritually is something that happens within you, when your mind and heart are stayed on Him and Him alone. As Isaiah said in a prayer to God, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because they trust in You.” (Isaiah 26:3)

So you had to go home

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Mark McMillion

I heard a good talk about old age and going home. It spoke to me, since I did that recently. The talk was about Naomi and Ruth, taken from the Bible. But it made me think about myself, about other former missionaries who’ve had to go home, and about what is actually “home” anyway.

It doesn’t start out a happy story. Naomi, an Israelite, left Israel with her husband and their two sons when there was a famine in the land. They went to Moab, now an area of Jordan, east of the Dead Sea.

We’re told that Naomi’s husband died there and that her two sons married women from Moab. Then over some years her two sons died. Naomi had heard that the famine was over in Isreal and she decided to return. One of her daughters-in-law decided to stay on in Moab, her home country. But the other daughter-in-law, Ruth, made a stirring plea to Naomi to allow her to come with her, saying she wanted to stay with her always, and that “Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.” [1]

Returning home to Bethlehem was a sad time. Naomi’s former friends were told by her, “Do not call me Naomi [which meant ‘pleasant’]; call me Mara [which meant ‘bitter’].” [2] It was a sad homecoming. She was old, she had nothing but her daughter-in-law with her, and her life had seemingly almost been cursed—nothing to show for her life and her family.

I know a pretty good number of friends right now who just might feel similar; people who left home to go abroad when they were younger. They spent their lives in service to God and didn’t use their “best earning years” to lay up treasures on earth [3] but rather to preach the Gospel in all the world [4] and to do whatever they could to reach the ends of the earth with the good news of Jesus and God’s kingdom to come.

Now they’ve come back to North America or Western Europe from Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, or South America, approaching retirement age with little to show in the physical in the way of wealth or material things. They are like Naomi: now “home” but not “at home.”

But if you look at the Bible, there are a surprising number of people who left home for one reason or the other. Abraham was commanded by God to leave home [5] and there’s no record he ever went back. Moses fled from his country when he was 40 and stayed away till he was an old man. Then one day God told him it was time to go home. And it turned out the main thing God had been preparing Moses for all his life didn’t start till he was up into his 80s and had to go home.[6]

Or Jacob. Jacob fled from home because of his treachery and deceit and never saw his beloved mother Rebecca again. But after decades abroad, the word of God came to him one day, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.” [7] In Jacob’s case he left home with nothing but came back with a huge family and some wealth as well. The only thing was that Jacob’s hulking paramilitary twin brother had every reason to finally really get even with Jacob for all the despair that he had brought on him and their family before he fled abroad. So Jacob had quite a lot to reasonably fear in any return home.

How about Jesus? It doesn’t seem like He really had a home during His ministry years, or at least we can read where one time He said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” [8] Someone said to Him one time, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.” [9] To which He replied, “‘Who is My mother and who are My brothers?’ And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, ‘Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.’” [10] Seems like His relation to what we call “home” was not what we nowadays would call traditional.

And what about the apostle Paul? He told some people one time about himself and his traveling companions, “To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless.” [11] Paul seems like another famous great from the Bible who didn’t have what is usually considered a comfortable, normal worldly home.

But what about Naomi? As so often happens, God gets some of His greatest victories out of seeming defeat . And it takes an impossible situation for God to do a miracle. It’s all in that short book, Ruth, only four chapters.

It turns out that Naomi had a relative named Boaz. Making a short story shorter, Boaz and Ruth met up and, in modern terminology, took a liking to each other. Fulfilling Jewish customs and law, Boaz went through the process of those times to take responsibility for the inheritance Naomi’s husband had left, which would include the responsibility of marriage to Ruth.

This all worked out, and it ended up that Boaz and Ruth had a son together, Obed. And as the Bible says, “Obed begot Jesse and Jesse begot David.” [12] That was King David, the one who was Israel’s greatest king. And Jesus, some 900 years later, was called in His day, “the son of David,” [13] as it had been prophesied that the Messiah to come would be of the house and lineage of David.

So Naomi and Ruth didn’t wither and die in despair when they returned to Naomi’s homeland. God had something planned and prepared, something greater than either of them could ever imagine. Even if Naomi for a while “believed not,” yet God abided faithful.

So if you are “home alone,” remember Naomi. “Do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of patience, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.” [14] The best may yet be ahead, as it has been for so many people of faith down through the ages. In Isaiah 46:4 the Lord said, “Even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you!”

[1] Ruth 1:16.

[2] Ruth 1:20.

[3] Matthew 6:19.

[4] Mark 16:15.

[5] Genesis 12:1, Hebrews 11:8.

[6] See Exodus chapters 2–4:18.

[7] Genesis 31:3.

[8] Matthew 8:20, Luke 9:58.

[9] Matthew 12:47.

[10] Matthew 12:48–50.

[11] 1 Corinthians 4:11.

[12] Ruth 4:22.

[13] Matthew 1:1.

[14] Hebrews 10:36.

7 Ways to Know the Will of God

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Mark McMillion

Someone wrote me, “How do I hear from God? How do I know His will?” Interesting question and one almost all of us have. I was thinking about that again this morning when I read that the first thing, the prerequisite for finding the will of God, is to have no will of your own.

Sometimes that’s called “yieldedness” or “surrender”, not very popular terms or ideas in our modern world. That’s why, when Paul talked about this, he said “be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2) Because God’s ways are so utterly opposite from the ways of the world.

In the world, we are to never surrender to anything or anyone. But in God’s sphere, we are to surrender and yield to Him. And that means to let go of our own will. Even Jesus Himself did that. Just before He was captured, tried and crucified, He cried out to His Father, saying “…not My will but Your will be done.” (Matthew 26:41) So even before you begin to find God’s Will, the attitude of your heart needs to be one of yeildedness and surrender to Him.

But let’s say you’ve come to that place. You’re desperate, really seeking God’s Will for your life. Then what? The first way to know God’s Will is through His Word. The Bible is the first place to find the Will of God. When you read it in His Word, then you know it’s right. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”

The second way to know God’s Will is called “the voice of the Word”. This is when the Lord brings to mind a certain verse or passage from the Scriptures. Or you’re reading your Bible and all of a sudden a verse seems to jump right off the page at you. The Lord brings it alive and applies it to you personally, even if it was written for someone else 3000 years ago.

The third way to know God’s Will is by a direct revelation. Sometimes God uses a dream or vision, a voice or prophetic message to show you what to do. You know it’s from God if it agrees with and doesn’t contradict His written Word. The apostle Paul was on a missionary journey and at one point he seemed to somewhat not know where he should go next. Then in the night he saw a vision of a man, saying, “come over to Macedonia and help us”. (Acts 16:9) Paul took that as a message from God, went to Macedonia and things really took off again.

The fourth way to know God’s will is through Godly council. When finding God’s Will, it’s often wise to ask others for their opinion. However, it is important to weigh the counsel you receive and to prayerfully consider the source that it comes from. How reliable are their leadings from the Lord? Do they bear good fruit themselves and produce good results from their own actions and decisions? Solomon said, “He who listens to council is wise.” (Proverbs 12:15)

The fifth way to know God’s Will is through “open and closed doors.” If something is God’s Will, He’ll usually “open the door” and make it possible. Which direction is God providing or opening the way and the means to do it? Sometimes God has certain set-ups and situations which suddenly become golden opportunities. Circumstances and conditions are not always the final criteria for finding the Will of God, but they can sometimes be an indication.

The sixth way to know God’s Will is what’s called “burdens”. Strong impressions or feelings can sometimes be an indication of God’s leading. It’s not always wise to go by feelings. But if something is really of God you’ll have an inner conviction, what many Christians call the “witness of the Spirit”. You just know that’s the Will of God and that’s what you’re supposed to do, or not do. Paul said, “It is God that works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)

The seventh way to find God’s will is called “a fleece”. This is taken from Judges 6 where Gideon laid a fleece (sheepskin) on the ground and said, “Lord, if the fleece is wet with dew in the morning, but the ground is dry, then I’ll know it is You talking to me!” Then he wanted to be doubly sure, so the next day he said, “If the fleece is dry and the ground is wet, I’ll believe it!”, and that’s just what the Lord did each time. So it’s a little like asking God for a specific physical sign from Him.

Although they seem like an easy and supernatural way, fleeces are the least reliable of the 7 ways to discover God’s Will, only to be used in conjunction with the other more dependable points shared above. In fact, the more ways you employ in making decisions, the greater the assurance will be that your decision is right.

Once you know God, it becomes clear that we really need to do all we can to stay close to Him and His Will. Otherwise we can make some foolish mistakes and sometimes really endanger ourselves and others when we are “leaning to our own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5), running around outside the protection of His Will. I hope, in these troubling times, that you’re seeking first His kingdom and following closely His personal will for your life.

Mark McMillion

Creeds and Deeds, Facts and Acts

Category Archives: Discipleship and Christianity today